Word On The Street

As a leading Phoenix web design, advertising agency, graphic design and marketing firm, we spend quite a bit of time drilling into what is and isn’t working for hundreds of clients. In the past year or so our social media team has recognized fewer connections with the fans of the Facebook pages we manage for our clients. Not all of the fans we worked so hard to develop have been receiving the posts. These are people who have asked to receive our posts.

Alas, we were not losing our minds. Facebook recently admitted “…messages now reach, on average, just 15 percent of an account’s fans. In a wonderful coincidence, Facebook has rolled out a solution for this problem: Pay them for better access.” “As their advertising head, Gokul Rajaram, explained, if you want to speak to the other 80 to 85 percent of people who signed up to hear from you, ‘sponsoring posts is important’.” (NY Observer.)

So what does this mean? After spending time and money developing your fan base and social media strategy on Facebook’s system, you will now have to pay to play. Gotcha! This is their website by the way. They make the rules.

Online marketing moves like this are to be expected. That's why your online strategy must be built on a foundation of strong, independent, customer follow-up and engagement tools such as email marketing and new customer development tools like SEO and SEM. Your web site should be designed with lead generating features and built to function as the heart of your online interaction. Need help? Give us a call, we're happy to meet with you. We love this stuff!

“So what do you do?” is a question we all get when meeting someone for the first time. If you flip burgers at a fast food joint, then go ahead and tell her you’re a rocket scientist. But if you’re a business professional, you better have an effective 10 to 15 second answer to this question.

The wrong answer here like “I’m a dentist” might lead to their next question being “have you tried the artichoke dip?” The right answer could lead to your next big client. The right answer might be “I’m a cosmetic dentist with VanGlow, we specialize in high-end cosmetic procedures. I do my best to create perfect new smiles for vain teenagers with indulgent parents, but most of my clients are high-profile people from all over the world. And I’ll tell you there’s never a dull moment.” Now you’re interesting and you’re making them think. They want to hear more. You’re selling them without them even suspecting it.

How to write it: You could follow one of those extremely complex methods and bore them with a 2 minute answer. Or you can use this short, effective formula that I made up. This seems to keep the conversation flowing. Sentence #1: Your position, the business name and what your product or service is. Sentence #2: The type of clients you serve (no more than 3) and no more than 3 primary benefits they get out of the deal. Sentence #3: Something that makes them curious and want to hear more.

There. Now that you have that perfect elevator speech figured out, make sure everyone in your organization is using it!

Avenue 25 is one of the top ranked Phoenix web design, graphic design, branding and Phoenix advertising agencies. If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, give our ad agency a call. From branding to logos to web design and marketing, we do it all and we do it right. No...this is not my elevator speec...

It surprises me that so many businesses don’t realize how important their Google rank is to their business. Companies who do “get it” happily spend thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on search engine optimization for their website every year and are making a killing. They’re picking up their customers and your customers too. They know when their site ranks well the return on their investment can be staggering. But just how many people will click on your site if it’s ranked # 1 versus #5 or even #10? Slingshot SEO completed an enormous 6 month web study to find out. Here’s what they found regarding website position and percentage of searchers who clicked on the listings: #1 position = 18.2%, #2 = 10.05%, #3 = 7.22%, 4 = 4.81%, 5 = 3.09%, 6 = 2.76%, 7 = 1.88%, 8 = 1.75%, 9 = 1.52%, 10 = 1.04%. If you’re on page 2 or more, forget about it because it’s much less than 1%.

So what does this mean? Say your Chinese restaurant website is in the 7th position on Google for the search phrase “Phoenix Chinese Restaurant” and 10,000 people search for “Phoenix Chinese Restaurant” this month. It stands to reason this would lead to 188 visits to your website. But if you’re in the #1 position, your website should get about 1,820 visitors this month, roughly 9x the amount of web traffic as when you were #7. That’s an enormous difference for climbing just a few positions under one search phrase. Now what if you were also ranked #1, 2 or 3 for numerous other search phrases as well? See where this is going? You have to ask yourself how much is 9x, 100x or even several thousand times more visitors to your website worth to you? Website optimization is where it's at!

Avenue 25 is the top ranked web design Phoenix website designers in AZ. As a top ad agency Phoenix internet marketing firm and SEO company, we know how to make your website busy. Come to the professional marketing ...